The Best of Britain and Ireland -- Day One and Two

I decided to transcribe my journal to this blog and add pictures to the writing. The next dozen or so entries will be information about the trip my sister, Kelli, and I took to Britain and Ireland. We left for the UK on 24 April and returned 9 May 2010.

On April 24, 2010, Kelli and I embarked on a long awaited trip to the United Kingdom and Ireland. We will be touring England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales over the next two weeks. I can't believe the trip is already here! We've been planning and saving for three years. We decided to go with the tour company, Cosmos, this time. I love touring because there really are no worries. Accommodations, most meals, and the itinerary are all planned for you. You just show up and enjoy. It is great and stress free! I love it!

Our flight left Phoenix at 7:25 PM April 24 and arrived in Heathrow at 1:30PM on April 25. We arrived in Phoenix in plenty of time and came before the rush of passengers through the security checkpoint. Then we sat back and people watched until we boarded our flight.

Recently, a volcano in Iceland erupted and disrupted air travel in Europe. We didn't know if we would be able to come on this tour because air traffic throughout Europe (especially London) was grounded. Heathrow was closed for six days. We found out on Wednesday that air travel to these areas was reopened. It was cutting it a bit close, but we felt relieved we would be able to go and not have to cancel our trip.

You can imagine the back up of passengers because of six days of canceled flights. It was interesting waiting for our British Airlines flight. A lot of people were redirected/rebooked on our flight, some whose final destination was London, and others who have to have another layover there for who knows how long. There were security guards all around the terminal to keep the peace, but other than the enormous amount of people, the events in the terminal were pretty uneventful. Everyone behaved and was courteous to other passengers. We were surprised that this plane was able to hold everyone waiting. Lines and lines of people went in and it seems no one was turned away.

Waiting in the Phoenix terminal. This picture just shows part of the vast amounts of people waiting for the plane. Can you find me waiting expectantly in the crowd?

The plane ride was nearly 10 hours straight. We did not have a layover, which was really nice! Leaving at night was good because it was (theoretically) easier to sleep on the plane, though I still didn't sleep well. We still experienced jet lag once we arrived in London.

We arrived at Heathrow and a Cosmos representative was waiting for us. In fact, he was holding up a sign with our names on it! I've NEVER had that before. It was pretty cool and I felt pretty important! :o) We were driven to our hotel, Kensington Close, and we checked in with Cosmos. We also booked three London excursions, one for tonight and two for tomorrow.

Kensington Close


Our very small hotel room

We then went to our room, which is probably the smallest room I've ever been in, and rested and freshened up a bit before walking around searching for an ATM. We got the cash we needed (British pounds...ATMs have the best exchange rate, so we waited to get pounds until we arrived in London) and headed back to the hotel (by way of one store where Kelli bought a travel size wallet). At the hotel, we bought a two hour voucher for using the hotel Wi-Fi for 5 pounds! That's about $7.50 for 2 hours on the Internet! I couldn't believe the price, but I paid it so I could leave a message on Facebook for mom and Jesse that we made it here safely. I brought my iPod Touch so we could stay connected since our cell phones are not international.

After resting for another 30 minutes, it was time for our evening excursion...A Taste of London. We boarded our coach, and drove around the streets of London to four other hotels to pick up other tourists. Then we went to a pub called The Prospect of Whitby.

Outside The Prospect of Whitby


A view of the River Thames from the top dining room of the pub

Driving around London was cool...I love European buildings, though driving on the opposite side of the road will take some getting used to! :o) We saw some sites while driving, but not too many. We saw more later in the evening.

The pub was good. I had my first fish and chips and I was surprised at how much I liked it. Yum! This is something I will have to get again on this trip. We also sat next to some Australian tourists. It was fun to talk with them, listen to their accents, and find out a little about Australia. I will have to tour around that country one of these days!!

After dinner, we traveled to the Tower of London where we boarded a boat for a night-time cruise of the River Thames.

A few shots of the Tower of London

We sat on the top deck of the boat. It was pretty cold out there and it was threatening to rain, but we wanted to see everything un-obscured (not looking through the dirty windows).

View of the top deck of the cruise boat

Some of the famous sites we saw included:

The London Bridge or Tower Bridge


The first London Bridge


The London Eye


Big Ben and the Parliament Buildings


The Old Scotland Yard buildings (the three buildings before Big Ben)


A replica of a Shakespeare Theater


Plenty of cool Bridges


An old warship near the London Bridge


Other Random buildings

After the cruise, we traveled back to our hotel. Since we didn't sleep well on the plane, I am so looking forward to a good night's rest before more excursions through London, Windsor, and an evening at WICKED!!

Goodnight...until tomorrow.